Should I try to switch to F/T?

My male has been on strike for almost 2 months now. And has been a bit of a sporadic eater before that. Always been eating live prey (african soft furs). Haven't had any issues with it except for the fact that when he isn't interested I have to try and catch a African soft fur rat. After 2 straight months now, its getting old. I don't like trying to keep rodents, the smell, the extra animal to care for, etc. I've read about switching and the process involved. I made an ill-fated attempt almost a year ago not long after I got him (I think the prey was too small and I may not have been heating them well enough or dancing them well enough, he just wasn't interested).

Should I try again? Would it be worth the trouble/effort to try if he is on a fast/feeding strike? Or is he just on strike and will eat again when he is ready? He just shed the other night, so I offered his meal last night. He wasn't at all interested, didn't even stick his head out to look at it. He's a pretty lazy feeder though, in the past he would wait until the rat was in front of his hide before he would strike and would drag it back in to consume it. My younger female strikes and kills as soon as I drop her meal in (taking live as well), she has no problem going after it. So far she is a consistent eater (had her since Oct.). I don't remember the last time the male actually went after his meal, its been a few months that's for sure.

FWIW, temps are good, humidity is good.

its always worth switching to f/t, it might be a challenge but keep up with it. Try feeding a small live prey item then a small frozen to follow that up. There is lots of good advice online on how to switch over and whats worked for other people.

Based on the age this might just be an annual hunger strike. It might not be so much that he wont eat f/t, he might just not want to eat. As long as he has access to fresh water and isn't losing too much weight, you will prob be ok.

I personally would recommend switching to F/T rodents for the easy storage, that said it can be a challenge. I'm having a devil of a time getting my royal off prey fixation on mice and settled on rats.

I have a male who hasn't eaten since November so its probably just that time. I would try to make the switch to f. T. If you can get your hands on f. T feeders , i switched over all my snakes a while ago and it really does make things easy. Also i had a snake who managed to get injured by every single live rat she ate and it made me really nervous.

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cletus

Based on the age this might just be an annual hunger strike.

---

I'm thinking this is it.

Maybe I'll wait him out a bit until he eats this live fellow and work on switching him over when I have the freezer space.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alexio

Also i had a snake who managed to get injured by every single live rat she ate and it made me really nervous.

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

---

Yeah, I've had a couple times that made me nervous, mostly because he wasn't too interested and instead when to sniff it out. Need to convince the wifey that we need to make the switch.